Now known as BAE, the Barrow shipyard produced 6.8m shells and 8.7 million forgings and partly completed shells.
On a morale-boosting tour in 1917, King George V and Queen Mary paid a visit the factory with Her Majesty paying particular attention to the women munitions workers. Read more: Pictures from King George V and Queen Mary's visit to Barrow This was captured in an image taken by local photographers The Sankeys who documented life in and around Barrow at that time. According to the Yorkshire Post: "The Queen’s unceasing interest in the welfare of women workers was demonstrated several times.
"Her Majesty was told, and saw for herself, that the greatest care is taken to preserve the health of the girls and women employed in certain departments of the works. "Indeed, their healthiness was apparent, and risk of being gallant one may add that Lancashire has no reason to fear that its ‘lasses’ can be excelled in point of grace, and beauty and feature if the girls at Vickers’ are true representatives." (Image: Sankey online archive) Working conditions weren't quite as rosy as this however and the Sankeys captured the female employees in their day-to-day roles with their male supervisors.
They're often captured at tables weighing, inspecting and making shells and at times, filling them with steaming liquid from a large urn. According to Barrow's Dock museum, eighteen-year-old Alice Wycherley, who came from Manchester to work in the shipyard, said: "In Vickers, it was .
